When fostering a mom cat and her kittens, we prefer to use a large dog crate as their home base. This keeps the kittens safe, reduces stress for mom, and is much easier for you to clean. And within that crate, it’s important to give mom a smaller nesting space where she can nurse her kittens. If mom is feral, we’ll use a cat carrier for the nest. That way we can safely close her inside the carrier for a few minutes to clean the cage or weigh kittens. Place food, water and litter for mom - and of

Follow your foster nursing cat’s lead when working with her neonatal kittens. They need her, she needs to not be stressed (too much bad stuff can happen if she’s stressed, it’s horrifying… so our job as a foster is to keep them safe and help mom feel as little stress as possible. So when she’s okay with it, I interact more. They are just 10 days old. Peepers just starting to open. #fosteringsaveslives #ThisIsFostering #fosterkittens #kittenfoster #neonatalkittens | Sophia L’Orange Kitten Rescue

The key fostering a nursing mom with neonatal kittens is to keep her life as stress-free as possible. Right now it is taking the best care of nursing mama cat so that she care for her 14 day old kittens. Neonatal kittens need her more than they need you. And while you will need to interact with them to weigh them and change bedding (which also depends a lot of how mom is as to how often you should… if mom is protective and they are plumb and don’t cry then don’t stress her, do periodically so th